Well
Tony, please don’t get hung up on the names thing, my friends call me Sandy.
Well, I just kinda grew up that way and enjoy it when folks (like you) address me by name. What I enjoy, I think others will as well. Sure eliminates a bit of confusion as well. If you had not address your paragraphs to Ian and Steve, I would have been confused by its contents.
All of the stuff I threw on the message board should be easily available ‘on the net’ – I wouldn’t be surprised if I got something wrong somewhere – no one is perfect, I certainly ain’t and memories are often imperfect. I will swear on one bit though the Kiwi boss did throw himself on the boardwalk in Fremantle, he was adamant that no one was going to drill holes in his boat. The words ‘over my dead body’ were used and he had a good sense of humour and laid down in front of the vessel when the scrutineers came to poke holes on his fibreglass wonder. I pizzed myself laughing, those things you don’t forget.
He was indeed quite a "character" and really ruffled the feathers of the entire sailing community, WORLDWIDE!
I have trouble remembering the specifics as well but we are now living with the results of all those calamities... and I gotta say I think overall its a good thing!
Your exploits on the water sound ‘interesting’, I see where you are coming from now about the AC72s, that is not what I thought the Cup was about though - after today’s announcement I guess there is no going back.
I enjoyed sailing actively for over 10 years and then the family moved on to other interests. I'm not sure what you mean by "interesting", as the term is NOW used quite frequently as a polite way of saying "boring or ugh!" I'm going to take it as a compliment though... More of my "interesting" exploits later.
Ballast is good when the ocean conditions get heavy and you have to de-power, in a cat you become a cork or spend your time pretending to be a submarine.
I can't remember the EXACT figures but they, as you say, are probably still available online. A Prindle 18 weighs about 300 pounds to the Hobie 18's 400+. The Prindle had about the same about of total sail area as a Hobie 16 with a tall aspect ration using a 29' 6" mast. I believe the Hobie 18 had 20 or 40 more square feet than the Prindle 18 with a mast 1 or 2 feet shorter.
Bottom line, my experience was that with a crew of two (Prindle required a minimum crew weight of 300 pounds) that the Hobie would run circles around a Prindle in light to moderate winds and the Prindle would really cook with moderate to heavy air.
One time I handed the tiller to a friend a we were running almost directly downwind with my 7 year old son aboard in Mission Bay CA.
I said do NOT pull in on the main as we were really scooting along and a few minutes later I hear click-click-click!
As soon as I turned back to him the hulls dug in and my son sitting on the other side of him was LAUNCHED forward. I flew like a 240 pound flag hanging on the the side-stay... and the boat fell back down on its feet and took off again.
It took us about 30 minutes to gather ourselves and tack back UPWIND to retrieve my son. I have always insisted everyone aboard wear lifejackets or sit ashore and this was a good "trial" of all sorts!
OTHERWISE though... there was so much hull forward and such little weight it would indeed submerge them now and again, especially with two out on the wires but never showed any hint of pitchpoling, just cookin' along! I never had that experience again, as well as never handing my friend control of my boat again...
On another day with I was sailing with an OLD sailor who could teach me more in ten minutes than I had learned in 10 years before. The wind really kicked up while we were outta Ventura CA and we decided we really needed to get back. With him and I we probably were about 350-380 pounds and with the main basically released and the jib loose we ran on a broad reach towards the shoreline. Our boat speed hadta be over 20 mph as we ran up and over the swells and actually LEFT the water... being blown sideways in the air, and then slamming down on the other side only to do it again over the next swell. SCARY and coulda been FUN if I was so goddam SCARED!
It was a first for him as well... Happened about 3 or 4 times before we hit the beach and kissed the sand after the boat was blown about 20 feet beyond the waterline up the beach sand!
Another "one and only" time for me... as I was feeling a bit too old way back then.
Alter indeed kept up with materials and the 33 monohul was interesting but I could never understand dropping the 18, the symmetrical hulls with a pair of daggers the 8:1 mainsheet would see you scoot along on the trapeze wires. Solid too only had minor breakages and never rigging – fatigue on the rudder castings were the main worry but I put that down to the EPO rudders being so rigid, sadly she is gone. Seriously a beach launch is no harder than a Prindle and I have sailed a H-18 Solo, the daggers are easy-as to set, the jib is the hard bit. A Prindles’ simple rig is an advantage if you don’t want to mess with adjusting the sail area, that and the daggers are probably the only two major differences. I will fess up and say that as we had heaps of ramps to use so the H-18 got a trailer launch most of the time, the Prindle is similar in weight isn’t it?
I agree, with all said here, and I do lean to "simplicity" quite often. The assymetrical hulls of a Prindle made tacking a task that had to be mastered... with keeping the jib reversed (kinda like sometimes done with a roll-tack) and the bows DOWN by placing weight forward, and then having the air blow the bow(s) around, before releasing the jib, popping the battened main and the re-trimming both.
Launching and retrieving was on par but as I said earlier, the Hobie was at least 100 pounds heavier. The Hobie will tack EASILY on its centerboards compared with the "long centerboard" of the Prindle. If you just push on the side of hull of a Prindle idling in the water... It tends to pinch forward and straight! Many a sailor who THOUGHT beaching their Prindle and facing it into the wind when the breeze was coming off the water... has ran helplessly after their boat as it "walked" its way off the beach... then headed out to China with an absolute NEUTRAL weatherhelm!
I did a ¼ century in our Navy and served in one of your FFGs we painted them grey and used them as tier 1 warships. Oliver Hazard Perry Class, did a Sonar dome in a ‘rub’ with a whale. Worst weather was before that sailing thru the eye of a typhoon in the South China sea ( she was very angry that day ), with one boiler out from water down the stack I got a bit worried. Never lost a man on any ship I was on though.
I hadta go to Google to insure I knew an FFG was a Guided Missile Frigate. I see WE later renamed many of them as DEG and DDG's. Most were decommissioned though with new technologies. So you actually retired then as a lifer? I spent 3 years, 10 months and 11 days with my last tour ashore in DaNang RVN. I spent two years prior doing passive ASW work in Coos Bay Oregon and a year prior to that with Boot Camp and A schools. With a family of a wife and two young boys, I saw 50% of my time in the Navy would be on "unaccompanied tours" and so far I didn't really enjoy my time so far. I had at least another year of "sea duty" before me and this last one looking like a Marine in 'Nam was the straw that tipped the scales!
I was an ETN2, Petty Officer Second Class, Communications... and worked on lots of ASW equipment as well as TTY35's, R59A receivers and several portable and fixed transmitters and antennas. Much of the ASW gear was modified communications equipment made by Western Electric and AT&T. When I left the Navy and joined the Phone Company locally a month later, I ran into much of the same equipment. Is there any doubt we are not "watched over"???
Good chinwag, ta
As they say in the Puss ‘antifalsh removed